ROLES OF ROAD TRANSPORT POLICY ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTIN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY ABUJA, NIGERIA: STAKEHOLDERS PERCEPTION

Transport policies arise because of the importance of virtually every aspects of global economic, social, and political exercise. Transport is seen as key mechanism for promotion, development and shaping of national economy. The purpose of this research is to study the roles of road transport policy on economic development in Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria: Stakeholders Perception. The study employed both primary and secondary as data sources. The valid respondents for the analysis was 160. Five Likert-scale type questionnaires were used for collecting data. The analysis was conducted with the aid of Microsoft Excel and IBM statistical package for social science (SPSS) Version 26. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 5 Directors for interviews from the Federal Capital Territory Transport Secretariat who are the custodian of road transport policy. Secondary sources were obtained wholly from published materials and official Government documents and files. Federal Capital Territory Transport Secretariat, The National Planning Commission, Federal Ministry of Transport, and its Parastatals, and the Bureau for Public Enterprises were the main sources of data. The finding from the document review and interview reveals that lacks of full implementation, funding constraints, corruption and enactments of institutional framework that will give investors’ confidence to invest in roads are factors affecting the road transport policy. The interviewees agreed that policies of road transportation enhance economic development by providing easy access to the workplace, schools, and markets. However, finding from the questionnaires result reveals that, road infrastructures and safety were positively and significantly related with economic development. The study concluded that government should expediate action to establish institutional framework that will not only execute the reforms implementation with the Act but generate necessary fund for road infrastructural development through taxes.